<正> Some works of literature we prize for their universal and timeless qualities. Regardless of when or where they~2 were created, they seem to speak directly to us today, their freshness and power unaffected by the passing of centuries. Others appeal to us for a quite opposite reason~3, because they so richly and vividly reflect the particular period and society that produced them; because in effect they are so unlike the literature of the present. Like artefacts from and old tomb, they tell us of customs and beliefs that have now vanished, of a way of life~4 that fascinates us with its foreignness.